"They are not competitors" - When Gautam Gambhir hailed Indian all-rounders for having a healthy rivalry

India are blessed to have two quality all-rounders in the form of Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Both versatile cricketers were part of the Men in Blue's 2024 T20 World Cup triumph after which Jadeja announced his retirement from T20Is. Axar, who one of India's standout performers in the T20 World Cup last year, wasn't picked for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series in Australia.

Axar and Jadeja, though, featured together in India's four-match Test series against Australia at home in February-March 2023. Both played significant roles in India's 2-1 triumph. While Jadeja claimed 22 wickets at an average of 18.86, Axar contributed 264 runs with the willow at an average of 88.

Speaking about the all-round duo after India had taken a 2-0 series lead with a six-wicket win in Delhi, Gambhir hailed the camaraderie between the two players, telling Star Sports:

"There is a healthy rivalry between the two of them (Axar and Jadeja), they push each other. They are not competitors. Both are similar type of players, but one performed in bowling, and the other performed in batting."

Gambhir further opined that if Axar gets as many chances as Jadeja, he could also be equally impactful with the ball. The India head coach added:

"I believe Axar Patel will keep getting better. We have spoken about Jadeja as a proper all-rounder, Axar is not that far behind. You can also keep Axar in that category. We talk more about Ravindra Jadeja because he is the world's No. 1 all-rounder, but if Axar also bowls as much as him, he might also have as much impact as Ravindra Jadeja."

Jadeja has often been preferred over Axar in Test cricket because of his superior experience and also because that both players offer similar skills. Of late, though, Axar has outshone the Saurashtra cricketer in the limited-overs formats.

---

Ravindra Jadeja vs Axar Patel: A statistical comparison

Jadeja is featuring in his 80th Test match. He has claimed 323 wickets at an average of 24.14, with 15 five-fers and three 10-wicket match hauls. He has also scored over 3,300 runs at an average of 35, with four hundreds and 22 fifties. The 36-year-old has 220 scalps and 2,756 runs from 197 ODI matches. In T20Is, he played 74 matches, scoring 515 runs and claiming 54 scalps.

Axar, meanwhile, has so far featured in 14 Test matches and picked up 55 wickets at an average of 19.34, with five five-fers and one 10-wicket match haul. He has contributed 646 runs with the willow, averaging 35.88. The 30-year-old has 64 wickets and 568 runs from 60 ODIs and 65 scalps and 498 runs from 66 T20Is.